Rivers LG Chairmen And New Mandate

Results of local government elections in Rivers State, held on the 21st of last month have already been released by the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC). As announced by the commission, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won the chairmanship and councillorship seats in all the 21 local government councils where the local government polls were held, with almost all the former council chairmen re-elected for a second term.

It is still fresh in the minds of many that most of the re-elected council chairmen could not make sufficient show of grassroots development in the state. As it were, most of them left the rural populace on very sour note, yet they have been re-elected for a second term.

Indeed, now that the local government polls are over with results announced, expectations are high that the new and re-elected council chairmen should quickly gear up and ensure effective administration of the local government areas in the state. It is expected that the new and re-elected helmsmen should depart from the abysmal performance of the past.

It is unfortunate that after years of leadership in our local government areas, a lot of these chairmen have nothing to show for the confidence the people reposed in them. Rather, a lot of them carried on the local government administration as if it was their personal property.

This, no doubt, attracted the condemnation of the electorate and the state government publicly criticised their activities for non-performance, and charged the electorate to vote the non-performers out of the local government system.

More disturbing was the fact that most of the former local government chairmen (now re-elected) could not embark on development projects, even when the state government removed the burden of payment of primary school teachers as well as the construction of primary health centres from the local government councils in the state.

What is more, it is worrisome that the visible development projects in most of the local government areas in the state, are the ones that can only be credited to what the state government is currently doing, which include, primary schools, primary health centres, as well as constituency projects, dotting  the length and breadth of the state.

Beyond that, Senate President, David Mark, not too long ago, also chided the 774 local government council helmsmen across the country (Rivers State inclusive) over their abysmal performace, caused by their unbridled passion for quick-money  at the expense of the electorate. Berating the local government helsmen, Mark described them as mere conduit pipes for siphoning public funds”,  adding, “the local government councils have performed below expectations.”

Worse still, the Senate President declared, “all the local government chairmen  do is to go to Abuja, collect their allocation and sit in one hotel and share the money, and disappear into thin air. I want to say that there is no local government that is working in the country, and that is why we have problems in our hands.”

Ordinarily, the Senate President’s criticism would have been brushed aside just like other critics of the local government councils. But being the Number Three Citizen of the country, his comments on issues of public interest cannot be ignored because they have serious bearing on the nation’s polity.

Sadly enough, most of the former local government helmsmen in Rivers State  failed on their electioneering campaign promises, a development that took a toll on the electorate in the rural areas. It was the desire to challenge the local government chairmen to perform creditably that the state government introduced the Excellence in Local Government Initiative driven by the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA) to ensure effective local government administration.

The Tide hails the state government’s move in this regard, and  notes that the third tier of government is so essential that we cannot afford to abandon its administration in the hands of mediocres.

We, therefore, insist that the in-coming local government chairmen have no excuse not to give exemplary leadership, having been re-elected for a second term. Afterall, it was to avoid such excuses that the state government took over certain financial responsibilities  from the local government authorities and bore the burden of primary healthcare and teachers’ salaries.

Again, we state categorically that time has gone when the affairs of the third tier of government were directed  from the state. But unfortunately, this was not the case with most of the local government chairmen that ran their local governments from Port Harcourt.

Nevertheless, the fact that the former local government chairmen have been re-elected does not mean that the electorate are unmindful of their poor performances. They merely decided to ask them to salvage their integrity and ensure that they deliver the dividends of democracy this time around.

We, therefore, advise them to shun extraneous factors, such as god-fatherism, as that may distract them from giving good account of their stewardship. They should therefore, purge themselves of every negative trait that may hinder good governance with the new mandate given to them.